Department Meeting

8:30-3:30
Today I attended an AR/RTI meeting with all the media specialists in the county. It was an all-day meeting in which we learned about the AR program and how to guide students from focusing on points to focusing on target percentage (85%) and book levels. The data provided and the suggestions the two lead instructors gave were pretty interesting. I think that if students see how the goals are calculated and how 1 low test grade affect their overall average, they will definitely be more inclined to take their time and do their best.
I also really enjoyed learning about the home school connection side of this program. I think that parents should have the rights to see what tests their child is taking and how they are doing on these test. They can also help encourage their child to do better with this information!
Throughout the day, the instructors not only talked about AR, but also the STAR side of the Renaissance Place program. This program can be used to help students identify their reading level. Teachers can use as often as once a week as a progress monitoring tool for the RTI process.
Overall the day was very interesting and eye-opening. I have used AR as a classroom teacher for 10 years, but was unaware of all the components of AR. I will definitely see this program differently in the future!